Open surgery, in general, has been the surgeons' procedure of choice since it allows both hands access to the body cavity for bio/physical feedback through palpation of organs within the cavity. However, the relatively large incisions required can be traumatic for the patient and the healing process lengthy.
Many of these operations are now possible with minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical techniques using trocar and cannula assemblies, but they are not widely performed by surgeons trained only in conventional surgery. Highly specialized training and experience are required for such techniques. For example, in removing a dysfunctional organ or tissue from the abdominal cavity, the peritoneum must be cannulated at precisely located sites for insufflating the cavity and for inserting an endoscope and other surgical instruments. The instruments are manipulated within the cavity exclusively by observing their correlative positions on a TV monitor. Consequently, palpation and bio/physical feedback is not possible because there is no incision for the surgeon's hand to gain access to the cavity.